Students explore life here on Earth and utilize that understanding to determine what life is and how to look for it on other planets.Keywords: journaling, observation, living conditions, definition of life, food, air, temperature, extremes

Students construct a working model straw glider, identify the major parts of an airplane and experimentally determine how the ailerons, elevators and rudders control a glider.Keywords: aeronautics, parts of a plane

Students explore some of the reasons to think extraterrestrial life is possible by varying the distance from the Sun, studying organisms living under extreme conditions on Earth, and investigating extreme temperature effects on metabolism.Keywords: temperature, metabolism, gas, extremophiles, star mass, bond albedo, distance from star, greenhouse effect of atmosphere

Activities to help students discover conditions that make a reaction proceed faster or slower. Students demonstrate how increasing the surface area of a chemical increases its reaction rate.Keywords: chemical reactions, antacid, gas, liquid

Activities challenge students to make observations regarding the physical traits of living things with the intent to classify them through comparisons and contrasts.Keywords: animal classification, stereoscopic vision, observations, written observations, accuracy

Students examine the nature of life, what it requires, its limits, and where it might be found as well as learn important ideas related to the search for extraterrestrial life.Keywords: define life, aliens, physical features of the body, habitation requirements

Students explore why plants and animals may need support systems and discover that plants are the main source of energy in the food chain.Keywords: relationship between food, body shape, muscles, bones and skeleton

Activities guide the students to explore the relationship between frequency and wavelength and apply it to explain the Doppler effect.Keywords: Doppler effect, wavelength, frequency, energy, rotation, relative motion

Activities that develop a basic understanding about the weight of air and its basic importance to understanding meteorology and determining that a change in temperature of air affects its vertical movement.Keywords: atmosphere layers, weather, moisture, clouds, climate, planetary weather, Coriolis, winds, planet atmospheres, gases, satellites, precipitation, radiation, air pressure, humidity, meteorology

Students strengthen their concepts of a comet by designing and building a model of a comet emulating a process that scientists and engineers follow on all missions.Keywords: solar system, small bodies, coma, tail, nucleus, deep impact, scientific methods, solar wind, sun, orbits, Kuiper Belt, oort cloud

Students design and build a crew exploration vehicle, or CEV, that will carry two cm-sized passengers safely and will fit within a certain volume (size limitation).Keywords: engineering, design process, rovers, entry, descent, landing

Students analyze physical processes that occur on Earth and Mars and compare differences on how particular similar physical features occur.Keywords: surfaces, craters, hydrology, careers, astrobiology, online programs, extraterrestrial

Activity challenges students to solve a real-world problem that is part of the space program using creativity, cleverness, and scientific knowledge, while learning about electricity, magnetism, forces and energy transfer.

Students construct a model of a catchment basin. Students can see how remote satellite images are used to learn about drainage systems and catchment basins on Earth as well as their possible existence on other planets.Keywords: Earth, topography, atmosphere, satellite technology, scientific process, satellite images, extraterrestial objects, meteorite, teamwork, data analysis, velocity, kinetic energy, latitude, longitude, geography

Computer-based mathematics-focused introduction into the Air Traffic Control, or ATC, system. Using the Smart Skies: Line Up With Math activity, students learn how NASA engineers use ATC simulations to make flying safer and more efficient.Keywords: air traffic control, simulator, computer-based

Students design and build a crane out of cardboard. Determine methods to reinforce the crane's arms so it doesn't collapse under a heavy load, and build a crank handle.Keywords: engineering, design process, rovers, entry, descent, landing

Activities to compare models of the size of Earth to other planets and the distances to other planets.Keywords: models, comparisons, solar system, estimation, distances, sizes, Voyager, Gemini, shuttle, space station

Teams' challenge is to design and build a model of a lunar transport rover that will carry equipment and people on the surface of the moon.Keywords: exploration, engineering, design process, rovers, planet surface, energy, force, momentum

Students construct 3 different kite models and predict the most effective design. Design and test and aircraft given several parameters and explain how early flight was influenced by kites.Keywords: kite, forces of flight, Newton's laws, laws of motion

Activity to grow plants in an environment similar to the moon designed in a unique partnership between NASA scientists and engineers and education professionals.Keywords: botany, design process, ecosystem

Students develop a comet model that can be eaten and trade another "comet" on which to take measurement using four senses.Keywords: solar system, small bodies, coma, tail, nucleus, deep impact, scientific methods, solar wind, sun, orbits, Kuiper Belt, oort cloud, edible

Activities help students develop a basic understanding of the relationship between cloud type and the form of precipitation and the relationship between the amount of water in the atmosphere available for precipitation and the actual precipitation observed by satellite.Keywords: atmosphere layers, cloud types, humidity, water cycle, moisture, MY NASA DATA, precipitation, rainfall, water vapor, climate, climate zones

Students use NASA web-based simulators to follow sequenced directions and complete ordered tasks while learning how the shuttle is made ready for flight, how the shuttle docks with the International Space Station, how the shuttle lands, and how NASA retrieves the solid rocket boosters.Keywords: simulations, computer simulations, computer-based

Students visualize the comparative sizes and distances of solar system bodies by making solar system objects to scale using common objects, walking off the distances between planets and participating in a Web-based Sun/Earth scale model activity.Keywords: planet sizes, planet comparisons, Earth vs. Mars, models, science process, scale, orbits, solar system, sun, sizes

Students investigate how to determine the relative position of the sun, planets and a number of planetary spacecraft using a simple Web-based program.Keywords: planet sizes, scale models, distances, modeling, orbits, sizes

Students assume the roles of meteorites and play a giant board game to learn about meteors, meteoroids and meteorites. They compete to get to Antarctica, where they have the chance to be found and studied by scientists!Keywords: meteoroid, meteor, meteor showers, games, simulations, asteroids

Activities to help students understand how meteorites can unlock answers to the early history of the solar system and how meteorites and their big brother, asteroids, have played a role in shaping planetary surfaces.Keywords: meteorite, impact, geography, scientific process, measurement, volume, angle, velocity, rays, scatter pattern, meteor, topography

Students simulate operating a planetary rover and problem solve solutions. Work within a mission team setting to problem solve and accomplish a common goal, and research examples of real world applications of robotics.Keywords: programming, control, remote

Students observe the surface of rotating potatoes to help them understand how astronomers can sometimes determine the shape of asteroids from variations in reflective brightness.Keywords: asteroid belt, solar system, meteorites, small bodies, solar system formation, Dawn mission, rotation, albedo, reflectivity

Students create a simulation to model how the principles of the Coriolis effect influence weather patterns on a planet with gaseous atmospheres. Research the characteristics of what makes a planet habitable by engaging in a Web-based interactive game.Keywords: Coriolis effect, mars comparisons, wind, earth cycles, planet rotation, astrobiology, life on other planets, astroventure, planet comparisons

Students use a nighttime image to observe areas of light across the United States and to identify patterns and spatial distributions of human settlements.Keywords: history, habitability, life on Earth, populations, U.S. at night, puzzles, problem solving, city lights